The price of freedom
by Rezuiel
Summary: When a femme escapes from a life of being completely controled and to learn to think for herself will she cope even with help of the Autobots.


Disclaimer: Everybody belongs to their owners if you see a name you don't know then it'll be one of mine.

Equilibrium's story

Chapter 1

AG925XX gasped and shock her head as the control chip in the cranial circuitry deactivated and allowed her to take control over her own body again.

Back in the labyrinth the thought came to the forefront of AG925XX's, as she looked round trying to find out which simulation she was in this time. As she moved off in to the depths of the maze AG925XX recognised the pattern of the openings and the texture and colour of the walls and floors. The desert level and on a high difficulty as well. Shamter must be in a good mood she thought ruefully; the desert level wasn't one of her better ones. Still she would try her hardest, aided by the fact she actually enjoyed the time she got to spend in the labyrinth. It was the only time she was in control of her body and not trying to hurt someone else, and that she was one of the best, one of the ones the others hoped to be teamed up with. Turning a right hand corner AG925XX found the first flag of what was sure to be five or six. She also found a spring and a wall power-up. Leaving the spring for one of the others to waste their time with, AG925XX grabbed hold of the wall one instead these were always useful in her opinion and tended to be ignored by the others but that was just because they didn't know how to use them. The spring would also normally be useful or even vital to complete the level, but the desert simulation was closed toped and the jumps were all low enough for her to make with out help.

If this is the set up Shamter usually uses there'll be two flags on this layer and three or four on the next but AG925XX also knew her master was just waiting for her to make a mistake like that, so she'd still check all the places where the flags could be hidden. Lucky the desert level only had a couple of large rooms, rather than the normal dozens of smaller ones, and she'd learned early on hoe to "read" the sand that the floor was made of, so she could almost always tell where it would shift and sink. It didn't take long for AG925XX to scout the other 3 rooms and to find that they all contained flags hidden in the corners. Ha thought you'd catch me out, you'll have to do better than that Shamter! only in her thoughts could she refer to her owner by his name. Running up the steps at the end of the layer AG925XX sneaked a glance at the score board. She had collected 4 of 5 flags and her opponent had only collected 2 of hers, she was surprised that there was only one other in the labyrinth with her it was unusual for her to face a single opponent now, it was normally a group of two or three at least. Reaching the top of the steps AG925XX went straight for the room opposite the steps, this was the most dangerous and difficult room of the level and there was ALWAYS a flags hidden in there. As she only had 1 flag left to collect she knew it wouldn't be in either of the two rooms that were by the stairs. Running into the room AG925XX spotted her opponents last flag, set up on the edge of the floating platform at the top of the room.

Always the platform, never the gallery round the edge of the room about half way up the wall there was a ledge easily big enough for her to run on. The floor of the room itself looked stable, but it was really made of quick sand and the floating platform was only connected to it by a thin beam. It had taken AG925XX a few tries to get her next room right, it was easy enough to run along the beam to get up to the platform, but within a few Astro-seconds of stepping on to the platform it would begin to collapse. The fall to the floor alone could do enough damage and that's apart from the fact that you would land in quick sand and the rest of the platform would come down after you. A distant chime sounded, it meant that her opponent had found her third flag. AG925XX took an unnecessary deep breath to steady herself and to help her systems cool; she needed to be at her best to pull of the next move. Then she took off sprinting off up the beam, the enhanced gyro circuitry from her supposed original purpose as an entertainer helping her once again. Tearing across the platform as fast as she could AG925XX soon reached the opposite edge where the flag was. Reaching out AG925XX grabbed hold of it allowing her speed and momentum to spin her round it. This took careful timing if; she went too fast she the flag would disappear to late and she'd miss the ledge, is she went too slow the flag would disappear too soon and she's get caught up in the collapse of the platform. As it was AG925XX timed it perfectly and, landing her feet briefly on the edge of the platform to balance herself, she performed a back flip off the edge and landed easily on the gallery. As the last flag registered on the scoreboard and her score finished totalling up, the maze shivered and vanished leaving AG925XX and another, a mech, standing in a large plain room, the only feature a door set over to one side. AG925XX felt the control chip reactivate with a painful shock and her control was taken away again as quickly as it had been restored. Locked back in the prison of her own mind AG925XX sighed sadly, some things just never changed. The door opened and two Quintisions entered one was Shamter, AG925XX's owner, the other one she didn't know but he was either the owner or handler of the other robot she had been competing against.

"that was a good match Mriss, the closest you've come so far to beating me" AG925XX could hear her master boasting. Beating you huh, who dose all the work if she had control over her body she would have shown him who was beating who.

"Yes well if you hadn't gotten lucky when you brought AG925XX as a cheap second, I think we'd soon see who had the better team." The other Quintision replied "DC406XY come here." The mech, like her, no longer in control of his body had no choice but to obey "I've got another match in just under a megacycle, so I need to get moving"

"AG925XX come here" while the control chip was active the robots were completely obedient and loyal, but could only respond to the simplest of commands. "I've got another match soon as well, a level red fight down on the southern continent, with a large sum of credits for the owner of the winning fighter."

Not level red again, haven't I killed enough AG925XX hated the fights and the level red and black ones in particular. Fighting was one thing, as was killing to defend yourself, but the idea of setting out deliberately to kill another was abhorrent. But even if she refused to fight Shamter would just take control and force her to fight anyway, at least if she was in control she could grant her opponents a quick painless death. As she followed her master down the hall to the transporter station, she said a silent goodbye to the mech knowing that she would most likely never see him again. Take care my friend

As they entered the control room for the transporter station AG925XX saw once again how cheap her owner was. The transporter was old probably one of the first ones in general use, it looked patchwork and filthy. The only reason that her master would use it was because it would be the least expensive in the area. Her master gave a set of coordinates to the transporter technician and the machinery sparks to life, the transporter portal appearing a few seconds later.

"AG925XX you are to follow me once I have gone through." He owner said as he walked towards the portal.

Shamter stepped through AG925XX following a moment later, but even as she stepped towards the platform where the portal floated serenely, she could tell that there was something was wrong. There were tongues of energy running over the exposed parts of the machine, the operator of the transporter was yelling over the alarms and buzzers, telling her to stop. AG925XX couldn't have stopped the control chip in her head had total control and it was telling her to follow her master through the portal. As she reached the dais the portal surged outwards and grabbed hold of her, before collapsing in on its self as the power supplying the machine cut out and the whole room was thrown in to darkness. The operator after getting over the shock he'd received from the control panel and managing to get the lights working realised that AG925XX was missing. First thing he did was to call the receiving transporter station at the other end of the journey, to see if the missing unit had made the jump and also to let the owner know waht had hapened to his missingunit if it wasn't there.

AG925XX didn't know what was happening; it didn't feel like a regular transport. She tried to fight back against the portal, but the control chip prevented her from being able to so much as wave a hand at it let alone run. What ever was going to happen there was nothing that AG925XX could do about it. The portal suddenly expanded outwards and caught hold of her; AG925XX could feel energy crackling all around her and the ground disappearing from beneath her feet as she was swept away. There was a blinding flash of bright yellow, almost white energy and then the whole world went black. AG925XX couldn't put any of her thoughts in to order, nothing made sense, and transports were usually instantaneous; like stepping through a door way. In AG925XX it seamed both a life time and a single fuel pump stroke until there was a second flash. AG925XX felt herself begin to drop, reflexes and training took over and she flipped so that she would land on her feet. As she landed she stumbled and fell to the dusty ground, ending up in a heaped tangle of limbs, her usual agility and grace absent. It took a moment for her systems to stabilise and recalibrate and for her to get her bearings.

What happened looking around the arid landscape AG925XX realised that she didn't recognise any thing near by. Wherever I am it's defiantly not Alalter the planet she had existed (she could call her life really living) on before had been metal and, apart from the large ring behind her, this place most defiantly wasn't. AG925XX pulled herself to her feet looking around trying to spot anything familiar, but apart from the metal ring, there was nothing more she could see apart from sand, rock and the occasional patch of green.

Right, first things first she would worry about herself, and then she'd worry about where she was. Accessing her diagnostics AG925XX found she had no new damage, her energy levels were lower than she would have expected but they weren't dangerously so. The diagnostics also reported something else that she should have noticed sooner. The control chip was no longer active, but not only was it not in control of her body it wasn't receiving any signals at all. The chips were controlled by a main controller held by each robots owner, but these signals were relayed by a network of satellites. This was so that even if a main control was damaged or destroyed the robots would be kept under control, because the satellite would send a command to the chip to take over and to wait for pick up, this would also activate if the robot moved too far away from their owner without their permission. If AG925XX's control chip wasn't receiving any signals at all it meant that her first assessment was correct, she was no longer on Alalter.

Which means I've escaped… I'm free that single thought was enough to push away all the others of being low on energy, on a strange planet and completely lost. For one moment, however brief AG925XX wants to feel nothing but happiness and hope. Then reality caught up and brought her back down to earth, she might be free but she had no idea where she could get energy- this was the foremost of her worries. AG925XX had to make a choice, she could stay by the ring and hope that whoever built it came by and was wiling to help, or she could try to find a city or somewhere where she could procure the energon she needed. Looking round she couldn't see any signs nearby that anybody had been near the ring in recent times, but then again she couldn't see any other signs of civilisation either. In the end it was her own nature that decided for her, she couldn't just sit around and hope that some found her before her energy reserves bottomed out. AG925XX checked her energy levels again; she had enough energy to last for 2 Astro-cycles, even if she walked all day, so she had 2 gastro-cycles and maybe another 12 mega-cycles after that until she fell in to stasis lock. If she wasn't found within another few mega-cycles after that she would permanently deactivate. The loan robot climbed up the side of the metal ring getting a better view of the surrounding area. In the distance she could see a black strip, stark against the beige ground.

Some sort of track or marking maybe as it stood it was the only thing she could see, so it seamed a pretty good idea to head that way rather than any other, so she set off towards the track.

The base was quiet at the moment even for this time of night. The Autobot forces currently split in 3 directions. A few were down in the repair bay recovering from damage received in the earlier battle with the Decepticons. The rest were either recharging or on duty. Prowl took a brief break from checking and filing the reports about the battle, to check Ratchet's update report to see how the repairs were proceeding. Scanning down the report Prowl could see that most of the damaged Autobots had been replaced to their own quarters, only Jazz, Tracks and Powerglide were been kept in over night for observation. Prowl forwarded a copy of the report to Optimus Prime's personal computer just as he walked into the control room.

"Any movement from the Decepticons Prowl?" Optimus asked walking up to the tactician's seat.

"No there have been no disturbances, in fact there hasn't even been any sightings of the Decepticons. From a tactical point of view they'll need several days for repairs and their previous strategy has been to lay low for a few days longer."

"So you think we have about 5 days to a week before they'll make an appearance." Optimus speculated.

"Yes" Prowl replies as he beings to check over the last of the reports written by the others who had attended the battle at the power station, filing them in the correct folders.

"A few days of peace and quiet will be a welcome change. I'm going to my office to check the reports. Make sure that someone takes at least part of Jazz's shift tonight."

"I've already asked Blaster to take the second part of the shift, there's only a few hours left until he takes over. I've sent a copy of Ratchet's update report to your computer and almost finished sorting the rest."

"Good I'll add mine when I get back to my desk and then that should be all the reports available at the moment."

"I'll make sure they're all filed properly"

"Thank you Prowl, good night" Optimus says as he leaves the command centre.

"Good night Prime" Prowl quietly responds.

To be continued…

(As soon as I figure out how to write the next chapter that is… um… hehehe)

oh and for any who's intrested I have a bio for AG925XX (who will chose the name Equilibrium in the future) and a set of information on the labyrinth and the fights, just ask and I'll 'mail it to you.


End file.
